Overview
A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-11186, has been discovered in the “Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA” WordPress plugin. This vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with contributor-level access or higher to inject arbitrary web scripts into pages via the plugin’s cookies_accepted shortcode. This Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 2.5.8.
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to account compromise, malware injection, and other malicious activities.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from insufficient input sanitization and output escaping when handling user-supplied attributes within the cookies_accepted shortcode. Specifically, the code responsible for processing the attributes passed to the shortcode fails to properly validate and sanitize the input, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code. This code is then stored in the database and executed whenever a user accesses a page containing the injected shortcode.
The vulnerable code can be found in the plugin files. Reviewing the references below provides more in-depth insights into the exact locations in the code.
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) has assigned CVE-2025-11186 a score of 6.4 (MEDIUM).
- Attack Vector (AV): Network (N)
- Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L)
- Privileges Required (PR): Low (L)
- User Interaction (UI): Required (R)
- Scope (S): Changed (C)
- Confidentiality Impact (CI): Low (L)
- Integrity Impact (II): Low (L)
- Availability Impact (AI): Low (L)
This score reflects the relatively easy exploitability of the vulnerability and the potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Possible Impact
Exploitation of this Stored XSS vulnerability can have severe consequences:
- Account Compromise: Attackers can potentially steal user session cookies, leading to account takeover.
- Malware Injection: Malicious scripts can be injected into the website, redirecting users to phishing sites or infecting their devices with malware.
- Website Defacement: Attackers can alter the appearance or functionality of the website.
- Data Theft: Sensitive information displayed on the affected pages can be accessed by the attacker.
Mitigation & Patch Steps
The primary mitigation step is to update the “Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA” plugin to the latest version. The vulnerability is patched in versions released after 2.5.8. Ensure you are running the most current version to protect your website.
- Update the Plugin: Navigate to the “Plugins” section in your WordPress dashboard and update the “Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA” plugin.
- Review User Roles: Limit contributor-level access only to trusted users.
- Security Scan: Run a security scan on your WordPress site to identify any potentially malicious scripts that may have already been injected.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Consider implementing a WAF to provide an additional layer of protection against XSS attacks.
References
Cookie Notice Plugin Code (cookies_accepted Shortcode) – Part 1
Cookie Notice Plugin Code (cookies_accepted Shortcode) – Part 2
Wordfence Threat Intelligence Report for CVE-2025-11186
